Girls to testify in father's slaying

They saw granddad fire the fatal shot in Crystal Lake

On a brisk November morning in 2003, Philip Goldstein packed his two young daughters into a Jeep Cherokee outside his Crystal Lake apartment for a trip to the McHenry County Courthouse.

They never made it.

In a trial scheduled to begin this week, the girls are expected to testify about watching their grandfather kill their father Nov. 5 in the apartment parking lot.

Jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Adriaan Vlot, 74, charged with first-degree murder and endangering the lives of his granddaughters, now 10 and 12.

They had been on their way to a hearing related to Goldstein's divorce from his wife, Joann.

Philip Goldstein, 43, opposed a Thanksgiving visit that his estranged wife planned to make with the girls to the Weatherford, Texas, home of her parents, Adriaan and Tina Vlot.

Vlot's defense lawyers acknowledge that he went to confront Goldstein that morning before the court hearing, but say the gun he carried fired accidentally.

His granddaughters, now living with their mother and grandmother in Vlot's Texas home, are expected to be crucial witnesses in a trial that could last more than two weeks. Lawyers have said jury selection alone could take two or three days because of pretrial publicity.

"The thought that they have to go through this is heartbreaking," said the girls' paternal grandmother, Edrie Goldstein. "They've gone through so much already, seeing their father killed before their eyes. It's awful."

Prosecutors plan to ask McHenry County Circuit Judge Joseph Condon to clear the courtroom of spectators, except for family and the media, when the girls take the stand.

Edrie Goldstein and her husband, Jerry, are in the midst of another court battle involving the girls, as they seek visitation rights from Joann Goldstein.

"It's moving very slowly," Jerry Goldstein said of the effort.

The Goldsteins plan to attend Vlot's trial, along with several of their slain son's siblings.

Also expected are Vlot's daughter and wife. Vlot's two brothers came from their home in the Netherlands to attend one court hearing shortly after Vlot's arrest in December 2003, but it is not clear whether they will attend the trial.

Prosecutors say Vlot approached Goldstein's vehicle shortly after 8 a.m. and shot Goldstein with a .30-caliber M-1 carbine, then shot himself three times in the face.

Vlot spent a month in the hospital recovering from serious wounds that his lawyers said in court documents have left him "a man who looks something akin to Frankenstein's grandfather." McHenry County taxpayers spent more than $100,000 last year on surgery for Vlot. A steel pin that had been implanted in his jaw has been removed, but he still wears an eye patch beneath dark glasses.

The defense will argue that Vlot, who drove from Texas for the court hearing at his daughter's request, had only meant to confront Goldstein. But the weapon discharged accidentally, according to defense lawyer Dan Hofmann.

In court documents, the defense has said that Vlot was a victim of "psychological terror" inflicted by Goldstein.

"This case is about what happens when a good person is repeatedly beaten down by a host of factors all stemming from the decedent's actions," defense documents say. "Sometimes they cannot take it anymore and are compelled to confront this antagonist."

In the court documents, the defense argues that Goldstein had falsely accused the Vlots of abusing the girls, that he had made physical threats against Vlot, and that he had in other ways provoked Vlot.

"Finally he acted decisively from the abuse Philip heaped on Adriaan and Adriaan's wife and daughter," say the documents filed by the defense.

The defense will argue that Vlot was angered and frightened enough by Goldstein to take a weapon with him to a confrontation, but not so much that he intended to kill him.

"I don't think it's risky," Hofmann said of the strategy. "You have to come into this knowing you're going to expose yourself."

On Thursday, Condon said he will allow documents found on Vlot's unconscious body by paramedics the morning of the shooting to be used as evidence in the trial.

One witness at the pretrial hearing said a prosecutor described the documents as a "suicide note," although neither side would disclose their exact nature when asked about them later.